"Franklin Grand March" to have First Ever Performance by String Ensemble

Contributed article...

[The local Live Arts String Quartet is staging an inaugural concert at the Franklin Historical Museum this coming Sunday, Nov. 16 at 3:00. The program will include masterworks by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms and a local treat, described below.  For this single concert, admission will be free of charge, with voluntary donations gratefully received at the door and in advance.]

The Franklin Grand March by Edwin Trowbridge

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Franklin, MA had a greater musical presence than is generally acknowledged. The City of the Town of Franklin is known today as the birthplace of Horace Mann (1796-1859), the Father of Public School Education in America, and it is near the Medfield birthplace of Lowell Mason (1792-1872), the Father of Public School Music Education in America.

Totally ignored by Wikipedia in its list of Franklin’s “Notable People” and also not mentioned in the History of the Town of Franklin from its settlement to the completion of its first century, 2 nd March, 1878 is Edwin Trowbridge (1844-1896), owner and operator of the Trowbridge Piano Company, whose manufacturing plant was located on Alpine St., across the tracks from the Franklin Dean railroad station. The company made at least three models of upright pianos. Two are on display here, at the Franklin Historical Museum and a third, the Florence model (named for the city of the piano’s birth) is at the Piano Museum in Hopkinton. 

According to bluebookofpianos.com, Trowbridge’s pianos were “thoroughly well-made, of first quality, and in every way reliable.” After more than thirty years, and facing bankruptcy, the company wasbought out by the Henry Miller Co. When that company was in turn bought out by the Continental Piano Co. of Boston, The name did not die. What had been the Trowbridge Piano Company became the Trowbridge Department of the Henry Miller Plant of the Continental Piano Company.

Not surprisingly Edwin Trowbridge, who was also a music educator, composed his Franklin Grand March for piano. It was published as such by White, Smith & Co., of Boston in 1873. It is not known for what purpose it was composed, though with a publication date of 1873, it could have been written for some ceremony held during the election year of 1872. 

Trowbridge’s march is a Grand March, not of the quickstep variety perfected later by John Philip Sousa. It is bold, yet with a certain sweetness in its melodies. It has been arranged especially for the Live Arts String Quartet by a composer going by the nom de plume of Franklin Bellingham.

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Editor's Note: Emma Partridge, to whom the March is dedicated, appears to have been a local singer of some repute...